So what's up with back sleeping?

They say lying on your back for too long is bad after the first trimester. I'm at 24 weeks and have been on my back quite often...whether I'm sleeping or just lying in bed watching TV at night. I feel no discomfort from it, so I'm wondering if it's okay to keep doing it for now? Most things I've read say you'll get nauseous or dizzy before any harm comes to the baby, but as I said I haven't felt any symptoms. Anyone have any experience?

I don't really get discomfort from it either, but I try to avoid it for more than a few minutes at a time. It's probably true that you'll get symptoms yourself before anything happens to baby, but if you can avoid it at all it's probably not worth the risk. You only have to be very slightly tilted one way or the other to take the pressure off that main vein, so you could try just pushing a pillow underneath one hip. I do sometimes wake up on my back and don't know how long I've been that way though but I try not to worry about it because you can't help that.

I have a Doppler and was getting freaked out because the baby's heartrate kept randomly dropping almost to the point of stopping. I told my doctor and she asked if I was checking it while laying on my back. She checked it while I was laying flat and it started to drop to around 120 bpm and would have dropped more if I hadn't sat up. She told me to tilt my pelvis and bend my knees. His heartbeat immediately jumped to 150 bpm. Their is a giant artery in your back that gets compressed. This causes the baby to not get as much blood and oxygen so his heartbeat would drop. I didn't feel bad laying on my back but it was obviously affecting my little guy. I'm very careful to not lay directly on my back now.

If you're lying in bed watching tv presumably you're propped up with pillows a little which I think takes the pressure offa little. The danger is the weight of the uterus compressing the vena cava and thereby stopping bloodflow to bubs.

She made me lift of my pelvis so my back wasn't flat along with my knees being bent. I prop myself up with pillows or wedge a pillow on one side of my back. I think as long as you aren't completely flat on your back it's fine.

The negative side effects of back sleeping during pregnancy are real, even if you think you don't feel any different.

A recent study showed that back sleeping in your third trimester increases risk of stillbirth by 3.7 fold. It has also been found that when pregnant women lie on their backs, their babies go into a more quiet pattern of behaviour associated with low oxygen. You can read more about it here:

The evidence is still fairly inconclusive on back/side sleeping. I'm a health scientist to I read the paper when I was pregnant with my daughter. The NZ study (which is the only study really about this) found an increased association between back sleeping and stillbirth in women in 3rd trimester (not 2nd). But correlation is not causation and there is no evidence that back sleeping causes stillbirth. It's entirely possible it's a third factor altogether that is associated with both back sleeping and still birth (sleep apnea for instance, which would be heightened by back sleeping and would reduce oxygen intake in mums).

They also found the same correlation with sleeping on the right side, but not the left. Interestingly, they found the same risk applied to not getting up to wee loads during the night. Women who wee only once or not at all during the night were 2.5 times more likely to have a stillbirth than those who wee twice or more. Taking a nap during the day (no matter how women slept) was related to 2 times greater risk of stillbirth than not napping. It's entirely possible that there is some lifestyle factor related to all of that - women who are not well, struggling with pre-eclampsia, GD, some other pregnancy complication who are off work in 3rd trimester, may be more likely to nap. They might have other issues that mean they aren't producing the right hormones they should that lead to extra trips to the toilet in the night and they sleep more deeply, with less tossing and turning, so more likely to sleep on their backs. Or they might be more overweight, have existing health problems that prevent them from sleeping on their sides (chronic pain, etc.). And it's these things that are actually what cause the increased rate of stillbirth.

Basically, my point is, it's just one study with a very small sample size and there is no evidence that sleeping position causes stillbirth, so take it with a grain of salt and don't stress too much about it. I found it uncomfortable after a point to sleep on my back and that's been I stopped with my daughter, but I wouldn't worry to much if you wake up on your back as you can only control so much.

I've just bought a 12ft (yes TWELVE ) body pillow to prop myself in a position that's comfy and stops me rolling on my back. Til now I'll pop a pillow under my right hip so I'm off that precious artery xx

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